Mutation in Celtic Place Names

Breton, like other Celtic languages, changes the sounds of letters, depending on their position and function in a sentence. Unlike the grammatical inflection in other Indo-European languages, it is the first letter that is affected (always a consonant) and there are specific parts of speech which trigger the if and when of mutation (articles, adverbs, numbers, conjunctions, adjectives and pronouns).

Table of Breton, Welsh and Cornish mutations

The soft mutations are by far the most common and those are the ones we will be looking at here. Cornish and Welsh mutations are very similar and have a similarly powerful effect on the orthography and pronunciation of place names.

So, let's look at a few examples:

Landevennec Abbey

Landévennec is the 5th century abbey (lan) of Tévennec (another name for Saint-Gwenolé/Winwaloe) -Brittany.

Llanfair (see L is for Llan) is St. Mary's Church -Wales.

Hengoad (see H is for Hen) is an old (hen) wood (koad) -Brittany.

Aodoù an Arvor is 'cliffs/coast' by (the) sea, (ar) mor -Brittany.

Felinfach means 'little' (bach) 'mill' (melin) -Wales.

Treveur is a 'big' (meur) village (tre) -Brittany.
It is still Trémeur in French.

Zawn Duel is a 'dark' (tewl/teul) 'cliff' (zawn/sawan) -Cornwall.

And Plougastel is 'castle' (kastell) 'village' -Brittany.

Comments

What really links place names in Brittany, Cornwall and Wales (apart from a few hundred Celtic saints)?

Place Name Elements in Breton, Welsh and Cornish (with examples and English gloss) BRETON CORNISH WELSH ENGLISH EXAMPLES C=Cornwall; W= Wales aut , alt, aod alt, als, aulz allt hill, slope, cliff Duault (22), Nansalsa (C), Allt-golau (W) ael ael ael summit, brow, ridge Hirael (35), Aelbryn (W) aval aval, avallen afal, afallen apple Availles-sur-Seiche (35), Rosevallen (C), Dolafallen (W) aon, aven auon, awan afon river Pont-Aven (29); Arrowan (C), Aberavon (W) arcae - argae dam, embankment Erquy (22), Argae Alwen (W) ard, art, arz are, ard, arth ardd hill, elevation Arzon (56); Trenarth (C), Pennard (W) arz, arzh art, arth arth bear Île-d'Arz (56), Carn Arthen (C), Aber-arth (W) ascorn - asgwrn, esgyrn bone/s Coatascorn (

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The church of Whitchurch-Canonicorum in Dorset is dedicated to Saint-Candida (a.k.a Saint-Wite). Below the east window there is an altar tomb with three openings which allowed devotees to reach inside the shrine in the hope of a miraculous cure for whatever ailed them. On the top of this there used to be a 14th century coffin built into a slab of local marble. When the local vicar opened it in 1848 he found a stone box. Inside the stone box he discovered a Saint's relics. When the coffin was examined again in 1899 another vicar found teeth, a lot of bones resembling those of small, forty year old woman and an inscription: Here lie the relics of Saint Wite What was even more extrordinary about this find was that all relics such as these had been destroyed during the Protestant Reformation. The only other collection of saint's remains still extant were those of St Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey. Perhaps this shrine looked more like a tomb then a

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